Benefits Plan Puts Gov. on Defense
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is working to quell a political firestorm over death and disability benefits for public employees -- even while accusing unions that oppose him of spreading "propaganda."
The governor is on the defensive about his plan to overhaul California's public pension system, after police and firefighters seized on a critical part of the proposal, saying it would end death and disability benefits for public safety officers hired after June 2007.
Schwarzenegger has said the benefits would be protected through legislation. But the issue has soured his relationship with law enforcement as he prepares for a possible special election this year to ask voters to approve his far-reaching changes to state government.
Reforming the financially burdened public pension system is one of four major components of his agenda -- and is proving to be perhaps the most controversial.
Schwarzenegger held five private meetings with police chiefs, police officers, fire chiefs, narcotics agents and county sheriffs in the Capitol on Thursday to hear their complaints.
He has scheduled a meeting with two fathers and a widow of slain officers at his Santa Monica office Monday.
"We're trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. We feel he has been receiving the wrong information," said Linda Soubirous, 43, the wife of a Riverside sheriff's deputy who was gunned down in 1993, leaving her widowed with a 1-year-old and a baby on the way.
Schwarzenegger canceled a meeting Monday with two widows, police union officials said, after the women participated in radio ads saying the governor's plan "will hurt the families of those who die keeping California safe."
The ads, sponsored by the 9,000-member Los Angeles Police Protective League, are running in Southern California and on Armed Forces Radio. California Families Against Privatized Retirement, a coalition that includes firefighters, police and teachers is running a second ad criticizing the governor on the issue.
Tammy Monego, whose husband was shot six times and killed by a robbery suspect in 1998, speaks in one of the L.A. police union radio ads. She won't be attending the governor's meeting.
"I was certainly willing to sit and speak with him, but apparently my verbal discontent has offended him in some manner," said Monego, 39, a law enforcement officer. "That is too bad. It's politics. But I didn't start this, he did."
